Processing Green Coffee Beans

Cherries of the coffee plant are processed to obtain green coffee beans. The method of extracting the coffee bean and converting the seed of the fruit (cherry) through various processes into green coffee beans is what creates the world’s most popular beverage. The cherry has the fruit or pulp removed leaving the seed which is then dried.

Most of the worlds green coffee goes through some sort of wet processing including most of the premium coffee. After the green coffee is picked the coffee is sorted by immersion in water. Bad or unripe fruit will float and the good ripe fruit will sink. The skin of the cherry and some of the pulp is removed by pressing the fruit by machine in water through a screen. The bean will still have a significant amount of the pulp clinging to it that needs to be removed.

In the ferment and wash method of wet processing the remainder of the pulp is removed and then washed with large amounts of water. In machine-assisted wet processing fermentation is not used to separate the bean from the remainder of the pulp rather it is scrubbed off by a machine.

After the pulp has been removed what is left is the bean surrounded by two additional layers, the silver skin and the parchment. Coffee beans can be dried in the sun or by machine. Drying entirely by machine is normally only done where there is shortage of space or the humidity is too high for it to get mildewed. When dried in the sun coffee is most often spread out in rows on large patios and raked every six hours to promote even drying and prevent the growth of mildew. Some coffee is dried on large raised tables where the coffee is turned by hand. The parchment is removed from the bean and what remains is green coffee.